Since Google as the world's largest and most popular search engine encourages Internet users to browse their search results, it is naturally functioning as an advertising vehicle and has turned into the most profitable Internet company in world's history. Google's success, however, has been subject to strong criticism as one of the main concerns is linked to Google AdWords, which reveal keyword-triggered advertisements as well as sponsored links besides unsponsored search results. Courts both in Europe and the United States under different trademark legislation felt forced to address the collision of pre-Internet trademark infringement doctrines with modern technology.  As Google AdWords have changed the way consumers observe Internet advertisements and search engines, the boundaries of trademark law have continuously been pushed forward. This development, thus, raises the question of whether Google AdWords by now are considered to function as trade liberalizer or trade infringer under two different trademark jurisdictions.  What is certain as of now is, that if the current circumstances are to change, courts cannot solely rely on old doctrines to adapt to new situations. Instead, new rules should not be subject to isolated court proceedings by individual instances regarded that jurisdictions of courts are limited by territorial boundaries and Google AdWords have evolved as an element of borderless online sphere. Taking these new challenges into account, this paper argues that addressing trademark issues originated by AdWords will demand an international consideration and coordinated efforts between the EU and the United States to bring forward an international solution.

Electricity Liberalization Independent Power Plant Project Finance Electricity Pool Biletral Contract

Abstract Electricity is an indispensable power in our modern life and it has an important impact on our daily life and the development of a nation¡¦s economy. Traditionally, it has been controlled and protected by the government, thus it has caused the power producers pay no attention to cost and efficiency. Through the electric power industry liberalization, the market will have more competition and it can increase the efficiency in management. The foundation of the electric power industry liberalization is the industry structures and market systems. Different industry structures will have different market systems thus producing different impacts in electric power industry. The power producers must use different strategies regarding to different management and circumstances to insure their best interests. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the circumstances and structures of electric power industry in Taiwan, This paper also talks about the strategies under different electric power market systems and management from the viewpoints of independent power producers. The power producers in Taiwan are in a difficult situation. Under the development of electric power industry liberalization, the government must consider the conditions of power producers, therefore, the authorities must speed up making rules and regulations and establishing electric power market systems. The government needs to set up a fair competition and efficient environment. Take the consideration of their own benefits, the independent power producers might use the following strategies: Build up less pollution facilities to reduce the cost of electricity. Borrow money from banks to increase the price of electricity. Using the strategy of bidding to gain more profits. Keywords¡GElectric power industry liberalization,Electric power industry structure,Independent power producer,Strategy

This research aims to relate the modern Swedish curriculum development to the political discourses liberalization and European integration through a critical discourse analysis of the Swedish curriculum Gy2011. These political discourses constitute the cultural context of Gy2011, which according to critical discourse theory is synonymous with the terms social sphere or praxis. The term cultural context includes the environment in which the text has been created as well as its intertextuality – in this case its relations to earlier curricula. The analysis of Gy2011 exhumes scientific research done in the field of curriculum studies, which enables future research. The Gy2011 analysis shows that the political discourses liberalization and European integration stands out within the texts cultural context, and have done so for more than 70 years, a fact that is illustrated by an overview of Swedish curricula history. This research also illuminates how the liberalization discourse accelerated during the 1980’s, by both social democrats and the political right, and that the European integration process has gained momentum in recent years.

This dissertation consists of three essays in International Trade. The first essay studies the impact of changing tariffs on the range of goods countries export to the United States. The empirical analysis shows that tariffs tend to have a statistically significant but small impact: at best 5 percent of the increasing extensive margin for 1989-1999 and 12 percent for 1996-2006 is explained by tariff reductions. This suggests the extensive margin has not amplified the impact of tariffs on trade flows to such an extent that the relatively moderate tariff reductions since WW II can explain the strong growth of world trade. The second essay investigates the sector and country determinants of the range of goods that countries export to the United States. Besides relating the traditional determinants of comparative advantage, sectors’ factor intensities interacted with countries’ factor abundance to the extensive margin in a sector, the empirical investigation includes interactions between sector-level measures of intermediate intensity and trade frictions. Consistent with hypotheses about fragmentation, the results show that closer countries and countries with lower tariffs imposed on them export a wider range of goods in sectors that have large intermediate cost shares. The impact of trade frictions is, however, far less pronounced for the more skilled-labor intensive sectors that are characterized by use of a greater range of intermediates. The third essay studies the impact of trade liberalizations on U.S. bilateral trade from 1989-2001 with a focus on the influence of exporting country liberalizations which matter when exports are produced with imported intermediates. Guided by extensions of the Eaton and Kortum (2002) model which allows for production to involve the use of imported intermediates, the essay estimates a structural equation that links U.S. bilateral trade flows to both intermediate tariffs imposed by countries exporting to the United States and U.S. tariffs. The empirical estimates suggest that especially for less developed countries their own liberalizations have been quantitatively much more important in explaining bilateral trade growth with an effect 3 times larger than the impact of U.S. liberalizations. / text

Με την παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή εξετάζουμε τις επιπτώσεις της απελευθέρωσης της ελληνικής τηλεπικοινωνιακής αγοράς στη δομή της αγοράς, στην τιμολόγηση και στην απασχόληση από το 1992 έως το 2005. Τα στοιχεία αφορούν 44 από τις πιο σημαντικές επιχειρήσεις της σταθερής τηλεφωνίας, της κινητής τηλεφωνίας και του διαδικτύου, και συλλέχθησαν με τη μέθοδο των συνεντεύξεων με τη βοήθεια ερωτηματολογίου. Η αξιολόγηση των στοιχείων έγινε τόσο περιγραφικά όσο και οικονομετρικά. Τα περιγραφικά μας αποτελέσματα υποστηρίζουν αρκετές άλλες έρευνες που συμπεραίνουν ότι η απελευθέρωση της αγοράς μειώνει το βαθμό συγκέντρωσής της, αυξάνει τον ανταγωνισμό, προκαλεί μείωση τιμών και αυξάνει συνολικά την απασχόληση. Στο οικονομετρικό επίπεδο, χρησιμοποιήσαμε Panel Feasible Generalised Least Squares (FGLS) που θεωρείται κατάλληλο εργαλείο για δείγματα, όπως το δικό μας, τα οποία αποτελούνται από διαστρωματικά δεδομένα για χρονικές περιόδους μεγαλύτερες της μιας, και δεν υπάρχει συσχέτιση μεταξύ των μη παρατηρούμενων παραγόντων και των ερμηνευτικών μεταβλητών. Η οικονομετρική έρευνα έδειξε ότι στο νέο ανταγωνιστικό περιβάλλον (όπως αυτό προέκυψε από την οικονομετρική ανάλυση) η ιδιωτική ιδιοκτησία και η ύπαρξη εξειδικευμένου προσωπικού στον εμπορικό και τεχνικό τομέα φαίνεται να επηρεάζουν θετικά το μερίδιο αγοράς των επιχειρήσεων. Επιπλέον, η κατοχή ενός μεγάλου μερίδιου αγοράς παρέχει μεγαλύτερη δυνατότητα στις επιχειρήσεις να μειώσουν τις τιμές των υπηρεσιών τους. Τέλος, η απασχόληση επηρεάζεται κυρίως από την ιδιωτική ιδιοκτησία. Κατ’ αυτόν τον τρόπο, το άρθρο μας προσφέρει χρήσιμη οικονομετρική πληροφόρηση σε ένα πεδίο που παρατηρείται ακόμη ένα μεγάλο ερευνητικό έλλειμμα. / -

(None) Technical Summary of Thesis: The topic of my thesis is currency crisis. Currency crises have been a recurrent feature of the international economy from the invention of paper money. They are not confined to particular economies or specific region. They take place in developed, emerging, and developing countries and are spread all over the globe. Countries that experience currency crises face economic losses that can be huge and disruptive. However, the exacted toll is not only financial and economic, but also human, social, and political. It is clear that the currency crisis is a real threat to financial stability and economic prosperity. The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the determinants of currency crises for twenty OECD countries and South Africa from 1970 through 1998. It systematically examines the role of economic fundamentals and contagion in the origins of currency crises and empirically attempts to identify the channels through which the crises are being transmitted. It also examines the links between the incidence of currency crises and the choice of exchange rate regimes as well as the impact of capital market liberalization policies on the occurrence of currency crises. The first chapter identifies the episodes of currency crisis in our data set. Determining true crisis periods is a vital step in the empirical studies and has direct impact on the reliability of their estimations and the relevant policy implications. We define a period as a crisis episode when the Exchange Market Pressure (EMP) index, which consists of changes in exchange rates, reserves, and interest rates, exceeds a threshold. In order to minimize the concerns regarding the accuracy of identified crisis episodes, we apply extreme value theory, which is a more objective approach compared to other methods. In this chapter, we also select the reference country, which a country’s currency pressure index should be built around, in a more systematic way rather than by arbitrary choice or descriptive reasoning. The second chapter studies the probability of a currency exiting a tranquil state into a crisis state. There is an extensive literature on currency crises that empirically evaluate the roots and causes of the crises. Despite the interesting results of the current empirical literature, only very few of them account for the influence of time on the probability of crises. We use duration models that rigorously incorporate the time factor into the likelihood functions and allow us to investigate how the amount of time that a currency has already spent in the tranquil state affects the stability of a currency. Our findings show that high values of volatility of unemployment rates, inflation rates, contagion factors (which mostly work through trade channels), unemployment rates, real effective exchange rate, trade openness, and size of economy increases the hazard of a crisis. We make use of several robustness checks, including running our models on two different crisis episodes sets that are identified based on monthly and quarterly type spells. The third chapter examines the links between the incidence of currency crises and the choice of exchange rate regimes as well as the impact of capital market liberalization policies on the occurrence of currency crises. As in our previous paper, duration analysis is our methodology to study the probability of a currency crisis occurrence under different exchange rate regimes and capital mobility policies. The third chapter finds that there is a significant link between the choice of exchange rate regime and the incidence of currency crises in our sample. Nevertheless, the results are sensitive to the choice of the de facto exchange rate system. Moreover, in our sample, capital control policies appear to be helpful in preventing low duration currency crises. The results are robust to a wide variety of sample and models checks.

[pt] Esse artigo estuda o efeito de um choque grande e plausivelmente exógeno induzido pelo comércio sobre a desigualdade de gênero no mercado de trabalho. Nos anos 1990, o governo brasileiro decidiu reduzir as tarifas de importação, induzindo uma liberalização comercial grande e de uma vez por todas, com efeitos heterogêneos entre as economias locais. Usando Censos Decenais brasileiros, eu estimo efeitos de médio (1991-2000) e longo (1991-2010) prazos desse choque sobre os resultados do mercado de trabalho separadamente por gênero e suas consequências para a desigualdade de gênero. Eu forneço um modelo conceitual de segregação ocupacional para racionalizar os resultados. Finalmente, também examino potenciais implicações desse choque para o mercado de casamentos e a acumulação de capital humano dos indivíduos. Os resultados apontam que, no médio prazo, em regiões mais afetadas, houve um aumento no diferencial salarial por gênero e as mulheres enfrentaram proporcionalmente maior aumento no não-emprego em comparação com os homens. No longo prazo, as perdas de emprego permaneceram no setor de bens comercializáveis, mas na economia como um todo elas desapareceram, enquanto o diferencial salarial entre homens e mulheres diminuiu no setor de não comercializáveis. Além disso, tanto no médio como no longo prazo, houve um aumento na acumulação de capital humano, ao mesmo tempo em que a parcela de mulheres casadas e que têm filhos diminuiu. À luz do modelo, esses resultados enfatizam a importância de se prestar atenção não só à desigualdade salarial, mas também à distribuição desigual dos gêneros entre as ocupações. / [en] This paper studies the effect of a large and plausibly exogenous tradeinduced shock on gender inequality in the labor market. In the 1990 s, Brazilian government decided to reduce import tariffs, inducing a large, once and for all trade liberalization, with heterogeneous effects across local economies. Using Brazilian Decennial Censuses, I estimate medium (1991-2000) and long (1991-2010) term effects of this shock to labor market outcomes separately by gender and its consequences for gender inequality. I provide a conceptual model of occupational segregation to rationalize the results. Finally, I also examine potential implications of this shock to the marriage market and individuals human capital accumulation. Results point that, in the medium run, in harder hit regions there was an increase in the gender wage gap and women proportionally faced higher increase in nonemployment compared to men. In the long run, the losses in employment in the tradable sector remained, but in the as a whole economy they disappeared, while the gender wage gap in non-tradables decreased. Besides that, both in the medium and long run, there was an increase in human capital accumulation, at the same that the share of women that are married and have children decreased. In light of the model, these findings emphasize the importance of paying attention not only to the wage inequality, but also to the unequal distribution of genders between occupations.

O presente trabalho busca avaliar os efeitos da liberalização financeira externa da economia brasileira sobre variáveis macroeconômicas como oferta de crédito ao setor privado, produto nominal, reservas internacionais, risco-país, taxa de juros e volatilidade cambial, no decorrer do período que vai de 1995 a 2014, por meio da estimação de dois modelos econométricos assentados em Vetores Autorregressivos: o primeiro com Mudanças Markovianas de Regime (MS-VAR), e o segundo com correção de erros vetorial (VEC). Além disso, realiza revisão da literatura teórica e empírica acerca da liberalização financeira externa e seus desdobramentos; apresenta os indicadores de abertura (ICC) - presente nos trabalhos de Cardoso e Goldfajn (1998), Soihet (2002), Laan (2007) e Cunha e Laan (2013), dentre outros - e de integração financeira (IIF); e expõe a história do processo brasileiro de liberalização financeira. No que tange aos resultados, ambas as metodologias econométricas apontam que: uma reversão do ciclo financeiro global impacta negativamente as duas dimensões da liberalização financeira externa da economia brasileira; um avanço da desregulamentação não gera efeitos significativos, o que contrasta com a posição favorável à plena conversibilidade da conta capital e financeira, defendida por Arida (2003a, 2003b, 2004); um aumento no grau de integração financeira engendra desdobramentos macroeconômicos problemáticos. No que tange ao modelo MS-VAR, sublinha-se que as consequências de um choque liberalizante são mais profundas em momentos de reversão do ciclo financeiro global, bem como que a endogeneidade dos controles, nos termos de Cardoso e Goldfajn (1998), é contingente à fase vigente do ciclo financeiro global. Quanto ao modelo VEC, destaca-se a precedência, no sentido de Granger, da variação da volatilidade financeira internacional frente à variação grau de integração financeira da economia brasileira, e deste frente à variação do risco-país. Conclui que, se não é possível descartar os benefícios da abertura financeira, há que se redobrar a atenção frente a seus riscos, considerando também as consequências negativas em termos de grau de integração financeira e a influência do ciclo financeiro global. / This study aims to evaluate the external financial liberalization of the Brazilian economy on macroeconomic variables such as country risk, credit supply to the private sector, exchange rate volatility, interest rate, international reserves and nominal product, during the period from 1995 to 2014, by estimating two Vectors Autoregressive econometric models: the first with Markov-Switching (MS-VAR), and the second with Vector Error-Correction (VEC). In addition, this study aimed to: conduct a review of theoretical and empirical literature about external financial liberalization and its consequences; present financial opening index (ICC) - present in the work of Cardoso and Goldfajn (1998), Soihet (2002), Laan (2007) and Cunha and Laan (2013), among others - and financial integration index (IIF); and exposing the history of Brazilian process of financial liberalization. With respect to the results, both econometric methodologies show that: a reversal of the global financial cycle adversely impacts the two dimensions of external financial liberalization of the Brazilian economy; an advance of deregulation does not generate significant effects, in contrast to the position in favor of capital account full convertibility, advocated by Arida (2003a, 2003b, 2004); an increase in financial integration creates problematic macroeconomic developments. Regarding the MS-VAR model, it points out that the consequences of a liberalizing shock are deeper in times of reversal of global financial cycle and that the endogeneity of capital controls, from Cardoso and Goldfajn (1998), is contingent on current phase of the global financial cycle. Regarding the VEC model, there is precedence, in Granger terms, of the international financial volatility variation over the Brazilian economy financial degree variation, and from it to country risk variation. It is concluded that if it cannot be dismissed the benefits of financial openness, we must exercise caution against its risks, also considering the negative consequences in terms of financial integration degree and the influence of global financial cycle.

Esta tese consiste de uma introdução geral e três ensaios independentes, mas inter-relacionados. O capítulo 2 aborda o tema da liberalização financeira no âmbito das economias emergentes, enfocando sua ligação com o crescimento econômico no Brasil. Com base em um modelo de vetores auto-regressivos (VAR), argumenta-se que as conexões entre liberalização financeira e crescimento econômico devem ser não tão fortes quanto o suposto em teoria, mesmo no curto prazo. Mostra-se que a experiência brasileira de liberalização financeira, medida através de dois índices independentes, não imprimiu um viés de redução sobre a taxa de juros, enquanto também não impôs um efeito altista sobre a taxa de crescimento do PIB. Nesse caso, liberalização financeira não parece ser um substituto para políticas estratégicas mais voltadas a induzir o desenvolvimento econômico, dado que proporciona apenas pequenos ganhos que tendem, todavia, a ser acompanhados por efeitos colaterais indesejados – o resultado líquido acaba não sendo relevante no sistema. O capítulo conclui que liberalização financeira deve ser interpretada de acordo com a visão demand-following, a qual sugere que a direção causal fundamental parte do nível de atividade econômica à liberalização financeira. Segue que tentativas de estabilizar as finanças de uma economia podem se dar através da imposição de certos limites aos movimentos desregulados de capitais como précondição para o apropriado desenvolvimento em economias emergentes. Por sua vez, o capítulo 3 explora a questão da racionalidade subjacente à acumulação de reservas no Brasil, uma tendência recente identificada entre importantes economias emergentes. Esse ponto é imediatamente relevante à discussão oferecida no capítulo anterior, dado que países emergentes parecem conduzir políticas macroeconômicas distintas e responder diferentemente aos desafios da globalização financeira, vis-à-vis o cenário de fluxos de capitais desregulados ao redor do mundo. A investigação sugere que a política de reservas internacionais no Brasil não mudou com a introdução de regime cambial flutuante de facto em 1999, ao contrário do esperado em teoria. Ao mesmo tempo, a política de governo relacionada à taxa cambial e acumulação de reservas no Brasil não pode ser relacionada a uma ativa política export-led growth conduzida pela autoridade monetária. Da mesma maneira, a competitividade internacional do País não parece estar sendo particularmente significativa para explicar a racionalidade da política externa brasileira. Além disso, o processo de integração financeira do Brasil com o exterior parece não ter exigido níveis mais altos de reservas, enquanto a desregulação financeira não consegue explicar a estocagem de reservas soberanas. A evolução da política de reservas deve, entretanto, ser avaliada considerando o processo de amplificação generalizada das operações externas registradas no balanço de pagamentos. Estas proporcionaram o excesso de liquidez no período sob revisão, em especial após 2003, principalmente relacionado ao exógeno (e inerentemente instável) dinamismo dos fluxos de capitais. O capítulo 4 lida com uma importante questão do gerenciamento externo de uma economia emergente, qual seja, o custo fiscal associado aos instrumentos adotados pela autoridade monetária. Ainda que uma política de acumulação de reservas possa ser benéfica, como forma de reduzir os efeitos de uma crise externa que poderia afetar uma economia, é necessário identificar os parâmetros e limites prudenciais da política de reservas. Para tanto, esse ensaio tenta identificar o nível ótimo de reservas precaucionais, no sentido de maximização dos gastos fiscais no Brasil. Como subsídio, os determinantes-chave das reservas brasileiras, identificados no capítulo anterior, permitem uma reflexão mais robusta sobre custos e benefícios de tal instrumento da política de gerenciamento externo de economias emergentes na era pós-Bretton Woods. Essencialmente, as diferentes medidas e simulações desenvolvidas oferecem a mesma inferência sobre a inadequação dos estoques de moeda conversível do Brasil, mantidos em excesso a partir do primeiro semestre de 2008. Adicionalmente, o exercício econométrico não suporta a assertiva de que a acumulação de níveis altos de reservas seja fortemente significativa na determinação do risco-soberano e dos custos de captação externa no País. Além disso, grandes montantes de reservas parecem estar relacionados a um elevado custo fiscal derivado da política de esterilização associada. Conclui-se pela necessidade de se adaptar o gerenciamento externo do Brasil a suas instituições. / This thesis consists of a general introduction and three independent but interrelated papers. Chapter 2 addresses the issue of financial liberalization amongst the emerging countries, concerned with its linkage to economic growth in Brazil. Based on a vector autoregressive (VAR) method, it argues that the linkages between financial liberalization and economic growth might be not as strong as supposed in theory, even over the short run. In fact, the Brazilian process of financial liberalization, measured by two independent indexes, has not imposed a downward bias on interest rates, while also has not implemented an upward effect on the GDP growth rate. It follows that financial liberalization is not a substitute for strategic policies designed to boost economic development, since it can offer only small gains but which tend to come accompanied with undesired side effects – net effect may be not as relevant as supposed initially in the economic system. From a core perspective, we conclude that financial liberalization must be interpreted according to a ‘demand-following’ view, which suggests the causal direction goes from economic development to financial liberalization. It follows that attempts to stabilize one economies’ finance could come by imposing certain limits on the free movement of capital as a precondition for the proper development of emerging nations. Chapter 3 explores the rationale behind reserves accumulation in Brazil, a recent trend identified among important emerging countries. This is immediately relevant to the discussion offered in chapter 1, as emerging countries seem to run distinct macroeconomic policies and respond differently to the challenges of the financial globalization, vis-à-vis the scenario of unregulated capital flows worldwide. The investigation suggests that reserves policy in Brazil has not changed with the introduction of a de facto free floating exchange regime in 1999, as theoretically expected. In this context, the government policy regarding the exchange rate and the reserve holdings in Brazil cannot be linked to an active export-led growth policy run by the monetary authority. Likewise, financial integration does not seem to have required higher levels of reserves, while financial deregulation does not explain the building of reserves in Brazil. Furthermore, international competitiveness does not seem to have been particularly significant to explain the rationale of the Brazilian external policy. Developments in the reserves policy,, though, should be seen against the background of a general widening of the balance of payments providing an excess of liquidity in the period under review, especially after 2003, mainly related to the exogenous (and inherently unstable) dynamism of capital flows. Finally, chapter 4 deals with the huge problem of external management of an emerging economy, namely the fiscal cost associated with the instruments adopted by the monetary authority. Even though a policy on accumulation of reserves may be positive, in order to reduce the effects of an external crisis that would affect the country, it is necessary to identify the parameters and prudential limits of the reserve policy. For such, it addresses the subject of precautionary reserve holdings, in an attempt to identify optimal levels and maximized fiscal expenditures to Brazil. The key relevant factors determining the Brazilian reserves identified in the second essay, will also allow for a more robust reflection about costs and benefits of such an instrument of external policy management in the post-Bretton Woods era. Essentially, the different adequacy measures and the model-based simulations offer the same inference about the inadequacy of the Brazilian reserve holdings, kept in excessive levels by 2008. Furthermore, as the econometric exercise does not provide much support for the claim that accumulating high levels of reserves is strongly significant to determine the sovereign risk and the costs of external funding for the country; and further, it seems to be related to a huge fiscal cost associated to the sterilization policy, the main conclusion points to the need to adapt the precautionary external management of Brazil to its own institutions, as it seems to run an external policy beyond its conditions.